It’s with some trepidation that I write this blog, the first as Chairman of the UKPA; Dean’s been such a giant, bestriding the podcast community, a fantastic representative for us all, fending off foes and gaining support from allies in the worlds of Heritage Media as well as New Media…

…a tough act to follow.

So… what are we going to do next, then?

Creating content is the fun bit of what we do. It’s easy. Enjoyable, a blast. If it isn’t… what are you doing?

Creating, maintaining and increasing an audience is harder, as the democratisation and disintermediation of the internet increases choice, fragments audience sizes, it gets harder and harder to be found and heard, or watched.

Monetising podcasts, if that’s what you want to do, is harder still. Partly because of the audience issue, but also other factors such as how to measure the ROI for advertisers, many of whom are still stuck with Heritage Media mindsets. Another issue for advertisers is quality – how to ensure that, as anyone can podcast, the brand values of their company is maintained and enhanced by associating with podcasters. Yet another issue is what monetisation method to use? Spot ads? Paid for content? White label podcasting? Sponsorship? Product placement? Pre-roll, post-roll?

Even harder than all of that is protecting this new media from the old guard. For sure, some such as the BBC are using the same platforms to publish some of their content as we do, which of course helps build the market for us all. But there are dark forces as work, such as WIPO, which has raised it’s ugly head again and which once again threatens us. Ofcom is waiting in the wings to sweep us up in to their regulatory framework which on one side of the argument makes sense, but equally can rob us of competitive advantage on what is a very unequal playing field.

I don’t know what you’d like from the UKPA, what you’d like to see us doing or where you’d like us to spend our time. But it seems to me that whatever it is, the more of us there are, then the louder our voice will be; the more weight and authority we’ll carry, and the more we’ll be able to achieve.

So let me know – it’s the first week for me and I’d like to hear your views – you can contact by email neil@ukpa.info. And if you get a gentle reminder to renew you membership… then please rejoin and help make UK Podcasting the force it can be.